(Eagle News) — The grenade and gun authorities said were seized from Rafael Baylosis were merely planted, the National Union of People’s Lawyers said.
According to NUPL president Edre Olalia, when the National Democratic Front consultant was “seized Wednesday afternoon,” authorities made it appear he had a gun.
He said this was because Baylosis had “no outstanding warrant against him.”
He said the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32 that is hearing the murder charges filed against Baylosis, after all, has denied the prosecution’s motion to cancel his bail and order his rearrest.
“During the inquest yesterday, suddenly a hand grenade decided to come out of thin air,” Olalia alleged.
The result, he said, was that “the false charge was not only illegal possession of firearm which is bailable.”
“Now to make the case non-bailable, the gun decided to give birth to a hand grenade, an item which was not mentioned in the police spot report issued earlier,” he explained.
“So the only basis for his arrest was the concocted story that a known 69-year-old peace consultant was swaggering around a busy city street with a gun in his waist and a grenade ‘associated’ (the police’s term, not ours) with the brown rice he was holding. What a way to plant and cook evidence,” he added.
Baylosis and his companion, Guillermo Roque, were arrested in Quezon City on Thursday night.
Baylosis is the first Communist leader to be arrested following the official termination of peace talks.